Improved photographic-plate vise



UNITED lSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEVI CHAPMAN, OF NEIY YORK, N. Y.

lMPROVED PHOTOGRAPHlC-PLATE VISE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 14,154, dated February 5,1856.

To all whom t may concer/L:

Be it known that I, LEVI CHAPMAN, of the city, county, and State of New York,havein vented, made, and applied to use a new and useful Improvement in Holders or Vises for Daguerreotype Plate Holders, Glasses, or Plates; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this specitication,\vherein Figure l is a plan of the vise complete. Fig. Bis a longitudinal section of the same as with a daguerreotype-plate and holder retained by said vise, and Fig. 3 is an end view of said vise.

Similar letters indicate the same parts.

The holders on which daguerreotype-plates are retained have to be held while the plate is being buffed by hand or polished. For this purpose, as well as that ot` holding plates or glasses used for photographs or ambrotypes, a vise has been made use of similar to the machinists vise, but made of wood instead of metal with a iixed jaw, and another jaw travcling on a slide by means of a long wooden screw, so as to hold the various sizes ofplates or holders; but the cost of these vises compared with their duty and the otherimproved daguerreotype apparatus has rendered a.

cheaper and more efficient article highly neccessary. I have therefore constructed a box or trough with grooves receiving a changeable jaw adapted to the size of plate or holder and combined with a sliding jaw peculiarly fitted within said box or trough and forced toward the changeable jaw, so as toretain the plate or holder by means of a cam and lever or its equivalent.

In the drawings, a is the bottom, and b b the sides forming a trough thatis to be retained in place on a bench or table, so that it can be turned around into any desired position by means of the screw 1.

2 2 are vertical grooves in the sides l) b, facing each other and allowing of the jaw c being readily dropped into or removed from any pair of grooves, and the position of these grooves 2 2 is to besuch that the regular space is left between the jaw c and the jaw d for the respective sizes of plates or holders to be placed within the lips of the jaws c and d, as seen in Fig. 2. This jaw d has a dovetail piece 3, attached to its under side, running in corresponding slides i 4 within the trough and also passing under the cross-piece e.

fis a cam-piece on a screw 5, moved by the handle g tov clamp any plate or holder between the jaws c and d, and G is a spring to keep the jaw d toward the cam f. By this arrangement of sliding jaw the piece 3 beneath the cross-piece e tends to retain the jaw d in a vertical position while being acted on by the camf to clamp the holderor plate. This construction of vise is very cheap and durable, is more readily adapted to the various sizes of plates and holders used in a daguerreotype establishment than the ordinary screw-vise, and the expensive screw and titting thereof are avoided.

I do not claim fitting a jaw with a limited motion combined with a sliding jaw retained by a ratchet or pins, as metallic vises have heretofore been constructed on this plan.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The arrangement of the jaw (l with the piece 3 between the slides at 4 and beneath the cross-piece e, acted on by the cam-piece f or its equivalent, when combined with the jaw C, changeable in the grooves 2 2 in the sides b b of the trough, in the manner and for the purposes specified.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my signature this 5th day of .Ianuary,lS5G.

L. CHAPMAN. Witnesses:

LEMUEL W. SERRELL, THOMAS G. HAROLD. 

